Expert Towing Advice
I have a 2020 Chevy Colorado LT, Short Bed. It is 4 WD and it has the Towing Package (brakes, etc). It has a towing capacity of 7000 pounds. We currently are looking at upgrading our camper to a ...
Forum Discussion
mr_andyj wrote:
The #1 bit of info needed is
Where do you plan to tow, mountains, flat?
How far will you be towing?
How often will you tow?
Many vacationers just do not have time to take cross country trips, this eats into your days, so they take shorter trips, less than 3 hrs from home. This is different than towing across the country, over mountain passes, down mountains, through cross-winds...
For short trips you can just drive slow and deal with it, but long multi-day drives you will want to move at a decent speed likely.
If Chevy says you can tow the weight then you can tow it.
WD hitches do not add 100 lbs to the tongue weight.
Do use a WD hitch as that lessens some of the issues.
Check your hitch rating. There are different Classes of hitches from 1 to 5, 5 is the strongest and will rip the truck frame out before it breaks.
A trailer this size should have brakes, so that will be very important and an expensive controller is better than the cheap ones, but you say your truck already has it factory installed. good.
Keep brakes in top notch condition for safety. The trailer should be able to stop/slow itself so the truck only needs to slow itself.
Use low gear going down mountains and keep the speed slow without using the brakes much. Hot brakes will be dangerous. You may need to creep down in 2nd gear to really keep it safe (or if you have 9 gears then whatever low gear needed).
Light trucks and short wheel bases are not a friend of towing. These mid-sized trucks are considered light.
Again, for short infrequent trips you have enough truck to get you there.
For long drives on a regular basis it would be worth getting a bigger truck or a smaller trailer. I think you chose smaller trailer. Small as possible is some people's motto
Well said! i feel like the common theme on these threads is "you need a 1 ton". no one takes into consideration what type of towing and how often. you don't need to spend 80k on a 1ton to tow once or twice a year. A half ton will do just fine in a lot of cases. If you tow regularly then id consider the upgrade. If you can squeak by a couple times a year a half-ton or Colorado would do just fine. Id rather drive a half ton to work everyday then a 1 ton.
